In The Service Of Free India : Memoir Of A Civil Servant

## B.D. Pande (Bhairab Datt Pande) was the first person from Kumaon and Garhwal division to pass the Indian Civil Service (ICS) examination from London in 1938. In his thirty-nine years as a civil servant, Pande held many important offices in the state and central governments. He served as finance secretary, development commissioner and food commissioner in Bihar; chairman of LIC at then Bombay; and finally cabinet secretary to the Government of India from 1972 to 1977. Pande was also the first person from Uttarakhand to be appointed the governor of West Bengal and later Punjab. In 2000, then President K.R. Narayanan conferred on him the Padma Vibhushan for his meritorious service to the nation. He was also honoured with a DLitt (honoris causa) by the Kumaon University in 2006. He passed away peacefully on 2 April 2009. In memory of Vimla Pande CONTENTS \* My father, Chandra Datt Pande, was the youngest of six or seven children, of whom four were boys. He was born on 15 July 1878, and lived to the ripe old age of eighty-two. He died on 23 December 1960 in New Delhi. My grandfather, Manorath Pande, died when my father was only four years old. My grandmother also died at about the same time. So my father was orphaned at a very young age and brought up by my eldest uncle, Jai Datt Pande. My other uncles were Hari Datt and Jwala Datt. Jwala Datt also died young and was survived by one son, Padma Datt, who later became a district judge and built a house at Kailash Colony in New Delhi. The two other older uncles, Jai Datt and Hari Datt, had no children. My father was one of the first young men of Almora to pass the MA examination from the Allahabad University-or the Muir Central College-as it was then called. In 1898, he obtained a BA and in 1900, an MA in history. After passing the MA exam he joined the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department. He retired in 1933 as deputy director general, Posts and Telegraphs (Postal Services) at New Delhi. My father moved back to Lucknow soon after my mother's death. We stayed in a yellow painted house with columns at 11 Station Road. I do not think this house exists anymore. I attended my first school here in Lucknow. I was enrolled in second grade at St Agnes Loreto Day Convent which was located at the end of the road towards the Lucknow Charbagh Railway Station. I must have been seven or eight years old then. Until then I had studied at home. A lady living across the road, one of two Indian Christian sisters, gave me lessons in English and piano. In a year's time, I was given a double promotion at school and joined the fourth grade. My father then shifted to New Delhi as the assistant director general, Posts and Telegraphs. For a few months I studied at the Philander Smith College in Nainital. This building now houses the Birla Vidya Mandir. My eldest sister's father-in-law was living in a house called 'The Towers' quite close to the school and was thus my local guardian. It was mainly sons of Anglo-Indian parents who attended this school, which was run on the lines of an English public school. I then came to Delhi to be with my father. For a short while, I was admitted to one of the Convent schools, either Jesus and Mary or St Columba's. Soon after, I joined the Modern School, in late 1927 or 1928, which had just started in Daryaganj. At this time, my cousin, Keshav of Grand Hotel Nainital, came to live with us, so I had some company at home also. I still remember my school friends of the Modern School days. They included Balwant Nehru (Balloo, as we called him)-younger brother of B.K. Nehru (ICS), Bharat Ram and Charat Ram-sons of Lala Shri Ram, Khushwant Singh and his future wife, Pratap Singh, Brij Mohan Soi, and Atul Kumar Mukarji (elder brother of Nirmal Kumar Mukarji who was the last of the ICS, and succeeded me as cabinet secretary in 1977). Atul got into Customs Service but died young. We used to go to school at about seven or eight in the morning and return at five or six in the evening. We had breakfast, lunch and tea in school. It was intended to be an all-round schooling. Apart from the usual lessons, we learnt music, carpentry, painting, riding and games like hockey and football. This period of my schooling was a happy one. But two incidents come back clearly. We used to be taught both vocal and instrumental music. The instrumental music began with 'dilruba'. The music teacher soon found that I was always out of tune. So he decided that it would be better if I devoted my time to gardening instead of disturbing the rest of the class. My class report of that time read, 'He has no ear for music'. Later during physics experiments I found that I could not detect 'beats' with my ear. Still later, in England, I tried to learn dancing. My teacher said that I had no ear for rhythm and could not get my steps right, so she told me to give up ballroom dancing. I was equally bad at painting. I could not get my perspectives right, even though we had a famous artist Sarada Ukil as our teacher. I remember doing a decent job painting a lotus. It was to be hung up in class, but before that could happen I managed to smudge it with black paint. During this period in Delhi we moved two or three houses, and finally lived at 10 Ashoka Road, where my father stayed until his retirement. Perhaps in 1928, I think, I had my yagyopavit\* ceremony. Many relatives came to attend it and the house was very crowded for several days. In 1928 or early 1929, we-that is my father, Keshav and I, along with a driver and cook-went to Kashmir by car. My father had the famous T-model Chevrolet of this period. It was summer, April or May. I met my wife-to-be in Srinagar, though I had no idea at all at that time. My future father-in-law, Pitambar Datt Pande, was then posted as accountant general, Jammu and Kashmir. He was the first Kumaoni to get into an All India Class I service, the Indian Audit and Accounts Service. My wife-to-be was then very young. She is eight years younger than me. I still remember the enormous amount of cherries we ate. They cost 4 annas a seer in those days † . We lived in houseboats and travelled all over the valley-Wular Lake, Gulmarg, Pahalgaon, Martand-but not Amarnath caves as it was too early in the year. At Martand, where the Pandas-priests for the Amarnath pilgrimsnormally stay, my father made an entry of his visit in their books. When I visited the place again with my eldest son Raja in 1956 on the way to Amarnath, I found this entry. Our car broke down on our way back from the valley near Verinag, the source of the Jhelum river. The driver had to go to Srinagar to get it repaired. So we stayed in a small dharamshala in Verinag for a few days. I remember that the only food we had to eat all those days was coarse, handpounded, red-husked rice with karam ka saag. No pulses or any other vegetables were available there in those days. I took my first photographs during this trip and the album still survives in my collection. Some memories of the lovely landscape are still vividthe poplar avenues near Baramula, the glades of Gulmarg, Banihal pass, Batote. My school days in Delhi came to an end by June 1929. I then came to Almora to study at the Government Intermediate College (GIC). The reason for this shift was that the schools in Delhi in those days were affiliated to Punjab University and the standard of education therein was considered to be low compared to that of Uttar Pradesh. So my father thought that it would be much better if I was educated in Almora. My uncle, Hari Datt, and his wife were living in our ancestral house and became my local guardians. I was admitted to grade nine at the GIC. At the time of my admission the teachers said that while I was alright in English, history, geography, and science, I was very weak in mathematics and Hindi and would require special coaching in these subjects. My father arranged for that. While I acquired just enough proficiency to pass my high school Hindi examination with 44% marks, I did much better in mathematics. I owe this to my cousin, Harish Chandra Pant, who was our mathematics teacher. His mother was my bua (aunt)-my father's elder sister. Harish was a very good teacher and the foundations that he laid helped me in securing a distinction in mathematics in the high school examination. I went on to get good marks in my Intermediate and BSc examinations, take the Part I exam in Mathematics Tripos at Cambridge, and also appear for two papers in Applied Mathematics for my ICS Examination. I lived a very lonely life at Almora. My uncle and aunt used to live in what we called our 'old house'. This was the original home built by our forefathers when they came to Almora around 1750. I lived alone in what we call the 'new house'. It is across the courtyard and was built by my father's eldest brother, Jai Datt, in 1904. This is a big house by comparison. The rooms are large with a high ceiling and are built on modern lines. The house is spacious and airy and gets plenty of sunlight. Most of this house was locked up, except the north-east facing room in which I lived. In those days we had no electricity, no tap water, and no attached bathrooms in the house. A servant brought water in kerosene tins from the nearby natural spring reservoirs (called 'naulas' in our dialect). We had to go to especially constructed toilets in the fields quite far from the house to relieve ourselves. Although there was such a stark contrast between life in Almora and that in New Delhi, I apparently did not mind or think it unusual. We had to climb a steep way up to the main road in Almora-there are now 125 steps-and then walk about a kilometre to the college. We got electricity in Almora only around 1950 and piped water came even later. Today these discomforts have disappeared. We have sanitary-fitted attached bathrooms, electric geysers for hot water, gas for cooking (in 1930 we used only firewood-kerosene stoves came later) and telephones. All this has made life here more comfortable. I had the company of cousins and nephews. They were more or less my age but were several classes behind me in school. My class fellows were all at least two or three years older than me. I was the youngest and slightly built. I passed my high school examinations in 1931 when I was just fourteen years old. I grew up to only 5'3" in height, so back then I must have been even shorter. I did well in my school exams. I stood first in Kumaon and also secured a merit position in Uttar Pradesh. When I got to the Intermediate science class, I was ahead of other boys and the teachers would ask me no questions; I was also the butt of teasing by other boys. All this made me unhappy. The schooling, as I said, was good. We had a very good principal-Thakur Netrpal Singh of the Indian Education Service (IES). I think we had two other teachers also belonging to All India Service. Then we had senior State Education Service teachers. One of them, Padma Datt Pant, was our neighbour in Champanaula. He used to teach us physics and we called him 'Pope Sahib'. He cultivated my interest in physics which continued to be my subject of study at the Allahabad University and even later at Cambridge. Towards the end of 1931 or so, I told my father that I was lonely and unhappy in Almora. He then decided to shift me to Allahabad. At this time, he opted for premature retirement from his service and moved to Allahabad for the sake of my studies. I was admitted to the GIC at Allahabad. For the next four years my father lived with me in Allahabad, except during the summer vacations that we spent in Almora. The GIC at Allahabad was at that time the most prestigious Intermediate college in Uttar Pradesh. The best students from all over the state (or province, as it was then called) came to study here. There was very keen competition among the students. When the Intermediate exam results of 1933 were announced, I passed in the first division with distinction in physics, chemistry and mathematics. I was also third in order of merit in the list of successful candidates of Uttar Pradesh, thus winning a merit scholarship for my BSc studies. Many of my colleagues at the Allahabad Intermediate College later qualified for the prestigious All India Services, like Anand Swarup Gupta for the Indian Police Service (IPS), and Govind Narain and Satish Chandra for the ICS. After passing the Intermediate exam, I joined the BSc (Pass) course at Allahabad University in July 1933. At that time, Allahabad University had a very high reputation with distinguished teachers like Dr Meghnad Saha FRS for physics, Dr Nil Ratan Dhar for chemistry, Dr A.C. Banerji for mathematics, Dr Amarnath Jha for English, Prof Ranade for philosophy, and so on. The university also produced students who were outstanding in their field of work and did particularly well in competitive exams. I passed the BSc examination in 1935 securing a first class with distinction in physics, chemistry and mathematics. This time my merit position was either second or third in the university. I played tennis and joined the UTC\* and, without any special distinction thereafter, joined the MSc in Physics course and passed the MSc Previous (the first year of MSc) in March 1936, standing first. The three years in Allahabad University were pleasant enough wherein I made a number of lifelong friends. In my first year, I remained a 'delegacy' student attached to the Muir Hostel. This was later known as the Amarnath Jha Hostel. Dr Jha was the warden of the hostel in my time and continued as such for years thereafter. Later, he became the vice-chancellor of Allahabad University and chairman of the Bihar Public Service Commission at Patna. During my second year I went to live at the hostel while my father lived alone in a rented house. This arrangement continued for another two years. I particularly remember our house on Park Road, and later on Hamilton and Malviya Road in George Town. Throughout this period, my father was working towards getting me admitted to Cambridge. He was in correspondence with Sir Hubert Sams, ICS, who had earlier been his director general, Posts and Telegraphs while he was in Delhi and had joined Peterhouse College in Cambridge as Bursar after his retirement, I think. However, I could not secure admission for the academic year beginning 1935. My father also approached the Indian High Commission in London and their Education Advisor to Indian students, but they were not at all helpful. Sir Hubert Sams, however, was able to get me admission to Christ's College, Cambridge for the academic year 1936. Before that I had to take a special matriculation examination in Sanskrit because a certificate in one of the classical languages was a must for admission to Oxford or Cambridge even if one was going to study natural sciences. The recognized classical languages for this purpose were Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Arabic or Persian. It was thus that my studies at Allahabad finished around to join the Provincial Civil Service while Narendra completed his PhD from Allahabad University in Chemistry and joined the Defence Research Organisation. Even after Narendra returned to India, I continued to stay at this place whenever I had to spend a week or more in London during my vacations. I was here when I later appeared for my ICS examination. It was a nice house with a garden at the back. The charges were £2 a week, which included breakfast, dinner on weekdays and a hot lunch on Sundays followed by a cold supper. Today this sounds fantastic. As I had reached England in July and college was not scheduled to open till the first week of October, we had a lot of time on hand, especially after Pant and Sahi had finished their competitive examinations. We decided to go on a tour of Europe, travelling by the cheapest class. Our itinerary from England included Ostend in Belgium, through Brussels to Cologne, up the Rhine by steamer, through the Black Forest, Heidelberg, with its famous university. The only German which I still remember is 'Ich habe mein herz in Heidelberg verloren, in einer lauen Sommernacht' (I lost my heart in Heidelberg, on a mild summer night). We then visited Munchen or Munich. This had become famous as Hitler and his brown shirts, the Nazi SS, had seized power. A popular place to visit was the memorial where twelve members of the earliest group of Nazis had been killed by the police when they had attempted to create local problems. Another famous place to visit was the Hofbrâuhaus, the famous beer cellar of Munich where Hitler used to meet with his followers and speeches were written. On our way by train to Munich we were in a railway compartment with one or two Germans. We started talking but our German and English were weak and inadequate. The Germans told us when we said we were on our way to Munich, that there was very good beer available in Munich. We said that we did not drink beer. I was, until then, a teetotallar and so were the other two. He asked what did we drink then. We said water-Wasser. 'Wasser!' he exclaimed. Then proceeded to say who ever drank water, and by the movement of his hands explained that water was only for washing one's face and swimming. Then on to Vienna, which was somewhat of a disappointment. The great capital of the Austria-Hapsburg empire had been reduced to a provincial capital. There were signs of poverty and great unemployment among the youth. Students continued to be in universities for seven or eight years as they could not get any jobs. From Vienna or Wien, as it is called in Austrian-German, we went to Budapest. We found this to be a most beautiful city-we had not anticipated it. Situated on both banks of the Danube, full of gay Gypsy music, our stay was memorable. Then through Bratislava to Prague-'Praha' in Czechoslovak-with its beautiful churches and the famous bridge with the crucified figure of Christ, and the tower clock where people appear whenever an hour is struck. From Prague via Dresden to Berlin-then an important and bustling cityand shall I say 'recovering' from the very permissive period during the Weimar republic. This was the cleanest city we had seen. One could not even drop a matchstick on the road. In the streets, in the parks, in fact nowhere, did one see any litter. We then travelled from Berlin to Amsterdam and the Hague and finally back to England. We visited most of the important art galleries, historic places, operas and gardens. I carried a pocket dictionary of English-German-English and English-French-English with me. I had passed a diploma examination while at Allahabad University in both German and French and although I could not speak much or understand very well, this smattering helped in finding our way about, ordering food in restaurants, etc. We also spent several days sightseeing through London and visited the Tower of London and Hampton Court among others. I did not explore London for almost the next three years as I kept putting it off. I did see the Westminster Abbey just before finally leaving London in September 1939. \* Sacred thread ceremony † Anna-former currency, equal to one-sixteenth of a rupee; seer is a measure of weight, approximately one and a quarter kilograms. \* University Training Corps, predecessor of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) I CHAPTER TWO Cambridge and the Civil Service Examination lived in Cambridge from October 1936 to September 1939. Let me divide it roughly in three parts-the first deals with my life and academics in Cambridge, the second with how I spent my holidays, and finally some reflections and impressions of my overall stay in England. \* I joined the BA Part I Tripos in Mathematics in my first year. My aim was to prepare and appear for the ICS examination. A rule had been introduced for those wishing to appear for the 1938 exam: a two-year stay at a British University was a must. From 1939 onwards, a degree would also be essential. Since the first time I could take the exam would be in 1938, when I would be twenty-one (which was also the required minimum age), I decided to take the Part I Tripos in Mathematics. This was a years' course. I then planned to take my Part II in Natural Sciences (Physics) in the remaining two years if I did not succeed in my first attempt in 1938. I found the teaching methodology in Cambridge in great contrast to that at Allahabad University. I still remember the first lecture we had. The professor said that the teachers would not cover the course in the lectures. The course was given in detail in the University Calendar and we were expected to study it ourselves. The teachers would only cover and give lectures on some important mathematical principles and we were expected to understand and apply them to solve problems ourselves. We were supposed to consult our supervisor or tutor in the college in case we faced any difficulty. We were assigned to a tutor whom we usually met with SPEAKING TIGER BOOKS LLP 125A Description In the decades following 1947, as the tallest national leaders were building a new India, they were supported by a band of idealistic civil servants fiercely committed to the country's Constitution and its people. Among these remarkable officers was Bhairab Datt Pande, a young man from the Himalayan district of Kumaon, who joined the Indian Civil Service in 1939. Over almost forty years as civil servant, and later as governor, he played an important role in the country's administration, and interacted with leaders like Indira Gandhi (as cabinet secretary during the Emergency), Morarji Desai and Jyoti Basu. His memoir- which, respecting his wish, is being published posthumously-is a fascinating record of his own life and that of India in the half century after Independence. Pande chronicles several landmark events and initiatives that he either participated in or witnessed. He helped increase food-grain allotment to the state as food commissioner of Bihar in the early 1950s and drew up a new famine code as land reforms commissioner. His work in the Community Development programme some years later still has important lessons for today's Panchayati Raj institutions. After retirement, he was governor of West Bengal during the resurgence of Naxalism in the early 1980s, and of Punjab in 1983- 84-a tragic and turbulent year in the history of the state and the nation. Pande chose to resign as governor rather than carry out unconstitutional orders. His compelling narration of the behind-the-scenes events and negotiations leading up to the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and Operation Bluestar is of great value. Engaging and inspiring in equal measure, this memoir is both a fascinating record of an extraordinary life and an important and revealing historical document. About the Author 2 Title 3 Dedication 4 CONTENTS 5 Introduction 7 Preface 12 1. My Family, Childhood and Education 14 2. Cambridge and the Civil Service Examination 26 3. The Bihar Years: District Postings 46 4. The Bihar Years: Patna 59 5. Delhi and Bombay: 1960–66 80 6. Patna, 1967 and Delhi, 1967–72 101 7. Delhi: Cabinet Secretary (1972–77) 123 8. Post-Retirement Years: 1977–81 142 9. Governor, West Bengal: 1981–83 149 10. Punjab: The Sikhs and the Hindus 181 11. Punjab: The Anandpur Sahib Resolution 203 12. Governor, Punjab: 1983–84 226 13. Punjab: 1984 248 14. Punjab: 1984 and After 273 Annexure I: Epilogue—20 April 1994, Ram Navami Day 285 Annexure II: Uttarakhand Paryavaran Shiksha Kendra 291 Annexure III: Epilogue: September 1999 294 Timeline 296 Copyright 299 End Page 300